: Denying allegations of a scam in pension payments to former employees, leaders of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Thursday admittted that there had been a lapse in record-keeping.
On Wednesday, the Aam Aadmi Party, via Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra, had alleged that the BJP-ruled civic body and its predecessor, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, had perpetrated a scam of about ₹2,000 crore in disbursing pensions to retired staff.
Report flags irregularities
The controversy started when the report of an audit was tabled in the last meeting of the North Corporation’s Standing Committee.
As per the report, the civic body had failed to verify the details of payments made to pensioners through its accounts in the Chandni Chowk branch of Punjab National Bank and the Chawri Bazar branch of UCO Bank.
According to the audit, a total of ₹1,942 crore had been released to the banks from 1998 to 2014-2015.
Delayed response
The report says that the North Corporation’s Finance Department was asked to verify the payment details in June 2015, but as of October 2016, it had not replied. This lead the auditors to say that the “correctness” of the payments could “not be ascertained”.
The Leader of the House, Vijay Prakash Pandey, said allegations of fraud and payment to so-called “ghost pensioners” were wrong.
“It looks like Mr. Mishra has no experience of administrative procedures,” said Mr. Pandey.
“As per a circular of the Centre, we pay pensions through nationalised banks. These banks check the status of the pensioners, who are required appear in the banks regularly to prove they are alive,” added Mr.Pandey.
Officials slammed
Mr. Pandey, however, admitted that officials of the North Corporation had been “irresponsible” in not answering the queries of the auditors.
“There has been a lapse in maintaining the proper records and answering the audit questions. We will take strict action against the officials responsible. But, there is a 0% chance of a scam,” said Mr. Pandey.
Matter being probed
He added that officials had been given until next week to gather the details of pension payments.
